Jump to content


CJAsis

Regular Member
  • Posts

    26
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by CJAsis

  1. see my answers in your other posts.
  2. 1. Keep your tires properly inflated. Keep your speeds down. Our LX's onboard computer shows that we get much better MPG at 55 - 65 mph than 65-75. The aerodynamics of these big SUV's absolutely blows so anything over 70mph and you're sucking gas down like a !Removed!. You can also try taking the third row of seats out if you don't use them often as extra weight hurts gas mileage in city driving. 2. Don't know but I'm sure it's been done. Try IH8mud.com for this one. That forum is full of a more hardcore group of offroaders and if anyone's done an extended tank... it would be there. 3. You can use a lower octane fuel w/o hurting the vehicle in almost all conditions. Your vehicle's onboad computer will !Removed! timing to prevent knocking. But you will negatively impact performance and you will likely get worse gas mileage (esp. on hot days with the AC on, etc.). I've not tried this yet with our LX as I think the results would be the same but I can tell you that our old RX300AWD consistently got worse gas mileage when we ran low or mid grade gas vs. premium gas. That was on multiple tanks over roughly the same driving scheme (commuter to and from work in mixed driving). 4. I can't answer that because we bought ours with the rear spoiler. Again, past experience only, the rear spoiler goes a long way towards helping keep the back window clear so it's doing something to airflow. I just don't know if that improves or hurts MPG. 5. We now have just under 3,000 miles on our 2006 LX. This is our daily driver and so our driving is pretty much consistent for traffic patterns, routes, etc. Our first tank we only got 13mpg. That improved with every tank until the vehicle had about 1,000 miles on it. We are now getting between 14.5 and 16 mpg with each tank depending on whether we take the toll road or not (our local toll road has two huge hills which require a kickdown to 4th so between that and the near autobahn speeds (80mph seems to be the cruising speed) we notice that our avg. fuel consumption is defintiely affected every time we take the toll road. Overall.. I can appreciate your concerns for fuel mileage since I don't enjoy spending upwards of $80 every week and a half to fill our tank either. But in my mind getting roughly 15mpg for a full size, 7+ passenger, permanent AWD SUV isn't bad at all. It's world's better than my neighbor is getting in his silly H2 Hummber (8-10mpg) and almost as good as another neighbor is getting in his Acura MDX (17-19mpg).
  3. I'm a huge Lexus fan but I don't know that I agree with you at all here. To say they'd be out of business is a stretch to say the least. Yes, it would cost them more but as their huge growth in the 90's will attest, money spent on keeping customers happy will often equate to much better return and new sales down the road. I have personally found that there are Lexus dealers and then there are Lexus dealers. In other words, we have on Lexus dealer that is local to me (Mission Viejo) that has a great internet sales staff but I've heard their floor sales people aren't that honest and I know for certain that their service dept. is horrible. It didn't used to be but it is absolutely awful now. Having said that, there are two other local Lexus dealers that offer interesting comparisons. Lexus of Tustin was one of the first Lexus dealers. And it's too small to be a good showroom and offer a good opportunity to touch, feel and drive new cars. As such, it's sales dept. suffers. But their service is very good. Lexus makes a good product... no matter what. But as with everything else in life, it's often the person that you deal with that will make the sales/service/trade in experience truly good.
  4. The car is a champagne colour. Never waxed a car in 31 years of driving. Never had a car paint fade. Currently have 1976 KZ900, 1990 Isuzu Trooper, 2000 Ford Explorer and 2004 M3. NONE of these has ever been waxed. The only car I own that has faded paint is my 2000 LX470? Is non-waxing the problem or could it be....let's see BAD PAINT? I'll bet a dime to a $ there's a problem with the paint. Wadya thank? Let's Discuss. I'm absolutely shocked that you've never waxed any of your other cars and you don't have paint fade. That has to be just short of a miracle because Ford and Isuzu use horrible paint. Lexus uses good paint and while I'm not trying to cause a flame war, I find it a bit odd that anyone would not follow common sense (and I'm willing to be the maintenance guide information in your owners manual) and then they feel that they have a crappy product because it does exactly what it's expected to do.
  5. you guys still haven't answered how often you wax the vehicles. unwaxed paint on any vehicle will fade. like Jim said... red will go faster than other colors but paint, like leather, needs to be cared for.
  6. As of 4/13/06 there hasn't been any official announcements on a replacement for the LX. There's a lot of speculation and folks claiming to "be in the know" but as of now... that's all speculation. One of the reasons we bought our 2006; however, was the spectre of a redesign. We feel like the LX has been out long enough that the bugs are out of the vehicle. The reliability is there, the technology is time tested and the vehicle is still competitive with the other "newer" designs. In addition, I'm going to guess that any replacement for the LX is going to be significantly larger than the current vehicle given how close in size the GX is and the popularity of uber utes lux utes like the new GL Benz, the Escalade and others. Our LX is the perfect size for us. Any bigger and it becomes unwieldy and I have to worry about it fitting in garages, etc. While I lament not having HID's or a dirct Ipod interface both of these items can be readily fixed with the aftermarket and we couldn't be happier with our LX.
  7. Blake 918 referred me over here guys. I have a 1997 Coach Edition that I recently purchased from my parents. The car now has just under 129K miles on the odo. My parents have owned the car since new and only decided to sell it when they got a great deal on a 2006 LS430 (which makes their 4th LS). Prior to buying the car from my folks, we had a highly reputable local Lexus dealer do the same inspection that they would for a Lexus Certified Preo-owned car. They recommended replacing the motor mounts and tranny mount as they were begining to deteriorate. We did that at the cost of a couple hundred bucks. Now we're experiencing the same issues that most of you are talking about. When cold the idle is higher than when warm. The car rocks from front to back when I engage D or R. It is more pronounced when I engage D and less pronounced when the car is nice and warm but it still exists. Here's the thing... the car didn't do this before the mounts were changed. My folks verified this. The car has been back to the dealer and we've met with their master tech. He's saying this is completely normal for a 95-97 LS to behave this way but this car never did this before and I have a lot of trouble believing that Lexus could have or would have marketed a $56K car (we have the original window sticker) that behaved this way. I've owned my fair share of cars including an IS300, RX300 and our current LX470 and none of my cars have ever done this. Moreover my folks 1990 LS, 1994 LS and 2006 LS don't behave this way either. I can live with the issue if it's not causing any stress or issues on the car. Bessie (as I've dubbed our old girl) is our third car and I use it to drive to work when I can't carpool with my wife and don't want to take the NSX or to baseball games or the airport. We're not going to be putting more than maybe 4,000 miles a year on her now but I want her to last a long time and since I drive her so infrequently... most of my starts (even here in S. CA) are stone cold starts. I'm worried that I'm doing damage to the car. Any thoughts/ideas/resolution is greatly apprecaited.
  8. No this problem did not occur prior to changing the mounts. My were the original owners since new and I've driven the car numerous times over the last 9 years. Never had this issue. To make certain that I wasn't losing my mind I have my Mom drive the car too and she was flabergasted. This problem did not occur prior to changing the motor mounts. Frankly there's no way Lexus would have marketed a $56K car (I have the original window sticker) that behaved like this. I'm going to try another dealer after tax season is past me. Will do. I'm perversly relieved to see that I'm not the only one.
  9. Hi everyone. Recently, my wife and I purchased a 1997 LS400 Coach Edition from my parents. They've owned the car since new and only got rid of it when they purchased a new 2006 LS. All maintenance has been done on time and at Lexus dealers (primarily Stevens Creek Lexus in San Jose, CA). The vehicle has roughly 128,000 miles on the clock and runs quite well. Before purchasing the car, we had Tustin Lexus peform the same level of inspection on the car that they would to certify the car as pre-owned. $200 later and the only things that came up were: 1) worn motor mounts 2) worn tranny mount and 3) questionable wiper blades. We had the motor and tranny mounts replaced and I did the wiper blades. My problem is that now that the mounts have been replaced, the car behaves strangely when it is shifted from P or Neutral into gear. Essentially, the car rocks back and forth as if it was being slammed into gear. The issue is much worse when the motor is cold as the rev's are higher while the motor is warming up but it's still noticable when the engine is warm. Shifts while the car is driving are still buttery smooth. As you'd expect, we took the car back to the dealer and they say this is perfectly normal for an LS of this generation. We countered that he car never did that before and they said it would have when it was new but that since the mounts were collapsing it was masking that and Lexus designed the mounts to cushion any vibrations (that makes sense) and the downside of soft mounts is this weight shift (doesn't make sense). Neither our old RX, our old IS, our current LX or any of my parents other LS cars have done this. And something doesn't seem right to me but I have no way of calling BS on the dealer. Any input/thought from you guys would be greatly apprecaited. Thanks.
  10. If you've owned the car that long and haven't been keeping a good amount of wax on the paint, then I'm not surprised it's fading. Lexus uses very good paint on their high end models but UV rays are a !Removed! and with all the crap in our atmposhpere these days... I'm surprised you didn't have paint fade before now.
  11. We love our 2006. In our opinion, there is a very noticable difference in power between the 2006 and the previous models. It's still not a rocket ship but it has plenty of power for a full sized SUV and it's actually pretty quick now. We've had ours fully loaded with 6 big adults and it has good get up and go and reserve passing power on the freeway. I've seen a magazine article on the new escalade that ranks the 0-60 times of the 06 LC/LX as 7.6 seconds. I don't know if that's true or not but ours certainly feels a lot quicker than our old RX300 AWD was (9.0 second 0-60). As for mileage... now full sized SUV is going to get good gas mileage. Here in S. CA, it's nearly impossible to drive less than 75mph on the freeway when you're not stuck in traffic and both traffic and high speeds kill gas mileage. But we're averaging about 15mpg in mixed driving. I think the EPA estimates were 13/17 so that's about right. BTW - our mileage has gotten a little better with each tank of gas and I expect it to continue to get a bit better until 10,000 miles when the motor is actually broken in. Any other questions... please feel free to pm or post here but we're pretty happy with our LX.
  12. It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one experiencing this. Maybe it is normal, but there has to be a reason. I've seen information about the solar sensors that wwest is referring to. I've even seen ads for this feature in car magazines. Let us know what happens when you take it in and mention it to the dealer. What dealer do you use, BTW? It's going to be a while before we actually get to 5,000 miles but I will post up our findings. We have had very good luck with Tustin Lexus for service. However, I'm really looking forward to Newport Beach Lexus opening later this year! It will be far more convenient for us and it looks to be very much along the lines of Fletcher Jones (ie every possible amenity and feature for the owners to enjoy)
  13. Great tribute. Our 1997 has 129K miles on the odo and has suffered the indignity of two serious rear endings in her lifetime (both times the LS held up very well and the other cars were mangled). But she still looks very good and runs strong, smooth and silent. Three of us just took it to Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson for our annual Spring Training trip and in three days we did 1,200 problem free, quiet, swift and comfortable miles. The drivers's side rear speaker has died but the stereo still sounds excellent. The wood, plastics and coach leather are still in great shape (despite being out in the sun every day and no tint on the windows). Great car.
  14. I'm actually very intrigued by this post. Our 97 LS has auto climate control as does my 98 NSX and our old (now sold) 2000 RX300. In each case, we set the temp. control to 72 and forget about it. Both my wife and I stay comfortable. We recently bought a 2006 LX470 and I am really frustrated with the climate control. I'll be hot as hell even with the temp. set at 72 and my wife in the passenger seat will be fine. I can feel hot air coming out of the vents on the driver's side but cool air on the passengers side. It's really weird. I haven't brought it up to the dealer (we've only just now got 1,000 miles on the car) but I will when it goes in for its free 5,000 mile service.
  15. Unsubstantiated rumours are that the next big Lexus SUV will not be called an LX but will be called a JX and will be based on the revamped Tundra/Sequoia platform and not the Landcruiser platform. As the next Tundra just debuted with a huge optional V8 (and something like 10,000 lb. towing capacity), I'm guessing that the Sequoia will be in the next year and the JX not that far behind. We just bought a 2006 because the additional 45bhp makes a huge difference and frankly, I don't want an SUV any bigger than this. I love the fact that the current LX/LC is big enough for a family but not so big that it can't be parked in a garage or parking structure. And frankly, the fact that the platform is now something like 7 or 8 years old made me feel very good. I want this thing to last forever and all Toyota products are good but those products which benefit from the constant refinement/QC efforst of multiple years of production are usually better still.
  16. I have 234,000 miles and still going strong. This 2002 puppy is justing getting broke in! Wow. That's great.
  17. Hi everyone. My wife and I are purchasing a 2006 LX470. We really want the factory rear spoiler on the vehicle as the one we have on our RX300 makes a huge difference in keeping the rear window clear and we assume the same will hold true with the LX. Our problem is that we can't seem to get a straight answer. One dealer is telling us that the OEM spoilers don't come on cars coming to CA and the only way to do that is go aftermarket. Another dealer is telling us that we can have the factory part installed at port before it comes to the dealer or have the dealer install a factory part later. That dealer says that having it done at the port is considerably cheaper than any of the other alternatives. Our car is supposed to be in port on or around 2/14. I'd really appreciate any of your insight. Thanks in advance. Christian
  18. I have a direct factory replacement amp in excellent condition. Interested ? ← I've tried emailing you a couple of times and I don't have PM ability on this board. Could you please email me at dahapa@hotmail.com ASAP. Thanks. ← Done. ← Additional emails sent, please respond. thank you. ← The amp should arive this weekend no later than Mon. Tues. ;) ← Please email me with the tracking information and refer to my earlier email. thank you.
  19. I have a direct factory replacement amp in excellent condition. Interested ? ← I've tried emailing you a couple of times and I don't have PM ability on this board. Could you please email me at dahapa@hotmail.com ASAP. Thanks. ← Done. ← Additional emails sent, please respond. thank you.
  20. I have a direct factory replacement amp in excellent condition. Interested ? ← I've tried emailing you a couple of times and I don't have PM ability on this board. Could you please email me at dahapa@hotmail.com ASAP. Thanks.
  21. I have a direct factory replacement amp in excellent condition. Interested ? ← Yes, I am. I've emailed you back. Thanks.
  22. Hi everyone. The amp. on my wife's Nakamich equipped 2000 RX300 AWD has died. I don't want to go aftermarket since so much is tied into the HVAC/Radio screen but the dealer says the new amp is $700 and installing it is another $300. Way too steep for me but the volume and power of the radio is now gone. Where can I go for a replacement amp.? Can I use something other than the Nakamichi amp? Thanks in advance.
  23. please do. i emailed them a few days ago and haven't heard anything yet.
  24. Are you sure Clear Corners can do an RX? They don't list that as a choice on their webpage. Also, do you have any personal experience with them? I really want to do this conversion to my RX. After driving my S2K and my wife's IS, the halogen bulbs in the RX really don't cut the mustard.
  25. I'm guessing then that you're buying a used IS300. At least in the US market, all IS300's beginning with MY2002 had an armrest. All US IS300's also have automatic climate control. US IS300's do not come with headlight washers. I get between 300 and 400 miles on a tank of gas. The huge difference really lies in what kind of driving I'm doing. Everyday driving, 300 miles on a tank. Highway driving, 400 miles.
×
×
  • Create New...

Forums


News


Membership